KarenWhat I am wondering is how many of you have kids. I feel like I am at a disadvantage in accumulating wealth because I had kids at a (fairly) young age.

The bad news is "yes, you are at a disadvantage having kids at a young age"! The good news is you can counter that disadvantage. The following points are not exhaustive but cover the main things DW and did during our journey.

- LBYM- drive used cars- bring lunch to work- live in a small but comfortable home- make kids earn there own spending money when old enough- refuse to buy the kids cars, make them buy there own, pay for gas, maintenance and insurance. Really, there is no constitional right to having a Mustang at age 16.- Saving for retirement takes presidence to saving for college. They have many other ways to pay for it. You have only one resource for saving for your retirement, YOU! If your pumping in 20% - 30% into FIRE funds and have some left over for college then fine.- camping vacations- did home repairs myself. Made mistakes but learned on the way- DW was great at finding bargains to cut costs for food, clothing and miscellanious items (read garage sales).

My wife and I had our 1st when I was 21 and our 2nd when I was 23. I've been there and applied the above so I could accumulate a decent net worth. Nobody suffered but we did low-budget fun things. I'm 41 now and anticipate FIRE around the age of 50.

(I won't go into how little about money management/saving I learned from my parents.)

I own the book The Millionaire Next Door but have not read it yet. Perhaps I should make the time to do so.

Reading TMND is a great start! It will help you over-come what you did not learn from your parents, rather quickly I might add! <grin>